Original Lesson Plan

Original Lesson Plan: http://linguistics.byu.edu/resources/lp/lpg4.html

Author: Brittany Borsanyi

Lesson Title: Passive vs. Active Voice

Suggested Grade Level: 8th or 9th grade Estimated Lesson Time: 60 minutes

Student Prior Knowledge: Students know how to form sentences and have learned other grammar basics, including subject, verb, subject-verb agreement, nouns, pronouns, etc.

Standards: LA.910.1.6.8- the student will identify advanced word/phrase relationships and their meanings

Goals: Students will analyze and recognize passive voice sentences and revise them to create sentences in active voice. This will help them to understand sentence structure and identify what a strong sentence looks like. Understanding how to change passive-voice sentences into active voice is important because active voice sentences are stronger. Therefore, the students will improve their writing after this lesson.

Learning Objectives or “I can statements”: I can tell the difference between sentences written in active voice and those written in passive voice. I can also edit sentences written in passive voice to make them active voice. Task: Identify sentences written in passive voice and change them to active voice.

Using a poll on the class smart board, Google Docs and Wikispaces, students will identify passive voice sentences and turn them into active voice.

Resources: Smart board, Google Docs, Wikispaces

“All Learners” Procedures:

1. I/teacher will give a short lecture on the difference between passive voice and active voice, and will show examples of each. The examples will be on the class wiki so students can follow along. (10 min) 2. You/students will answer poll questions, which will ask whether the sentence is in active voice or passive voice. The questions will be on the class wiki, and the poll answers/questions will be displayed on a smart board. Each question will be analyzed after completion (15 min) 3. I/teacher will provide paragraphs written in passive voice and give instructions on the in-class assignment. The paragraphs will be on the class wiki. (5 min) 4. You/students will pair up and revise the sentences in the paragraphs to make them active voice. (20 min) 5. We/class will discuss the assignment, displaying the students’ work on the smart board for the class to see. (10 min)

“Gifted Students” Procedures:

1. I/teacher will give a short lecture on the difference between passive voice and active voice, and will show examples of each. The examples will be on the class wiki so students can follow along. (10 min) 2. You/students will answer poll questions, which will ask whether the sentence is in active voce or passive voice. These will also be displayed on the wiki and the poll questions will be on the smart board. The sentences will be a little more complicated for the gifted students. They will be compound sentences or will have tougher words in them. (15 min) 3. I/teacher will provide paragraphs written in passive voice and give instructions on the in-class assignment. The paragraphs will be tougher for the gifted students. (5 min) 4. Students will work individually instead of in pairs and revise the sentences to make them active voice. (20 min) 5. We/class will discuss the assignment and display volunteer’s work on the smart board.

Students with processing issues: Instructions will be the same, but instead of analyzing full paragraphs, I will provide a list of simple sentences that the students will need to analyze. That way, they aren’t overwhelmed with big paragraphs and complex sentences yet.

Assessment: The students’ Google Docs will be graded for completion

The original lesson plan for passive vs. active voice from linguistics.byu.edu had no technology integrated, so I decided to provide ways that technology could be used. I think a smart board would come in handy, especially with poll questions. An example of a sentence could be “The ball was thrown by Andy.” Students would vote whether it is written in passive or active voice, and we would discuss the answer after everyone voted.

I also thought a class wiki or blog would be useful for all the materials/handouts needed for the in-class assignment. I was picturing having links up to the documents like the way you provided us with links for every class. Using Google Docs would be helpful too because students can see their classmates’ work, which may help some students learn from their mistakes. Displaying the Google Docs on a smart board is also helpful, so that everyone can be on the same page. http://linguistics.byu.edu/resources/lp/lpg4.html